Apr.25 Tuesday Rothenburg discovery walks

After a shower and wonderful breakfast at the hotel (I'll include pictures tomorrow), we dressed for a cold and wet start of our 1st day discovering this beautiful medieval town of .. Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

The name is German for "Red Castle above the Tauber (river)".  It is part of the popular Romantic Road through southern Germany.   Today it is one of only three towns in Germany that still have intact city walls.   Most of the town is largely intact from medieval times thanks to the efforts of commanders from the USA and Germany who got together in WWII as the Americans were advancing on the town and decided not to blow up this town to force a surrender.

Here we are .. about to enter the East gate for a fun day of discovery!

Please forgive the quantity of pictures you'll see on this 1st day!   There were sooooo many interesting sights!

Cobblestone streets everywhere!   I imagine the original tenants were appreciative to not have to slog through muddy streets!

Above the Markus Tower is a white stork's nest, home for a nesting pair.

The town has 42 out of the 70 original towers still standing !!   Can we get to all of them?   We'll try, for sure.

Beautiful, re-painted and restored half-timbered houses and stores were everywhere!    This was one of the largest towns in Germany in medieval times, housing over 6,000.    And around the countryside were 82 villages that had allegiance and protection from this district town, founded in 1274.

And all around town the the old fountains and wells were festooned with strings of real decorated eggs that celebrate Easter, including a Ukrainian color-scheme one in a picture you'll see later in this post.

Here's the central square, or .. 'Markt-platz'.

We wound our way through the streets to find St.Jacobs (english: St.James) Church.

This was built between 1311 and 1471 .. dedicated to the apostle St.James, the patron saint of pilgrims and merchants.   It is one of the churches on the pilgrimage route to St.James grave in Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

The following closeup is the .. Altar of the Holy Blood, a masterpiece of the famous Wurzburg sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider, made in 1520.

After the church visit, we felt we needed some coffee and a treat and sit in a warm bakery.

Then it was off to walk the city wall !

The access stair steps were tall, uneven, and narrow.    The passageways were narrow and short.    The views of the town were AWESOME !

As you can see .. the sun finally came out and warmed us up a bit.   It was time to buy some sandwiches and walk back to the hotel for a lunch break.   Afterwards we walked back to old town and the other side of town overlooking the Tauber River.   This side had many more towers and several interesting stores.

Below is the Ukrainian color schemed egg decoration on the fountain :

The following pastry, known as a Schneeballen (deep-fried pastry .. 'snowball') is a Rothenburg original.

We'll have to try one tomorrow morning during a coffee break.   We ate dinner at the Ratsstube Restaurant housed in a building built in 1331.  Jan had meatloaf and spaetzle (egg noodles) and I .. pork cordon bleu and french fries :

On the way back to our hotel .. one more tower and store sign picture :

What a fun discovery day in a very fairy-tale medieval town!   There is so much to see.   We have one more day to .. climb a tower, walk the path outside the city walls, eat some Schneeballen, visit a few more stores, and show you some more pic's !!

Take care.